KYC: Know Your CEO

With what seems to be a sudden increase in headlines highlighting poor behavior by CEOs and others in similar leadership roles, people are likely wondering what’s really going on with America’s C-suite.

I’ve worked with CEOs and other executives for decades, helping them strategize and build their profiles while also advancing the companies and brands they are leading. These efforts are becoming increasingly important as mistakes and poor examples set by a few high-profile leaders can quickly turn public sentiment against even the most effective, trustworthy CEOs. While the spotlight is nothing new for corporate executives, the stakes and the scrutiny are becoming higher for CEOs in this time of clickbait and cancel culture. 

The initial instinct for today’s CEO may be to take a defensive or self-preserving position, or more drastic measures like shutting down their socials or cancelling town halls.

In my experience, the opposite is needed. Now is the time for CEOs to reestablish and reclaim their own professional reputations. These executives hold the most central, high-stakes roles in managing and safeguarding brand reputation, and that includes preserving and fostering their personal brand as well.

This is especially important in the financial services industry, where trust, credibility, and transparency are critical to continued success. The CEO is not just a business leader; they are the chief trust officer, face of the brand, and tone-setter for the values and behaviors of the organizations they oversee.

Every CEO has a personal brand, whether intentionally established or organically developed through leadership patterns and behaviors. However, every executive can benefit from taking the time to proactively, strategically build their reputation to add value to their brand, company, and industry influence.

Establishing an Authentic Personal Brand as a Financial Services CEO

A personal brand is about defining the values and narrative that drive a CEO professionally and then communicating those messages effectively to both internal and external target audiences. CEOs with a strong personal brand can enhance their leadership presence while also supporting the credibility and reach of the company they lead. With clear standards in place, a CEO can take steps through intentionally curated content to demonstrate how they stand apart from the chaos and negativity dominating corporate news headlines.

Here are four key areas financial industry CEOs should consider as they create and communicate their personal brands to support their company’s strategic efforts.

1. Be socially active: A CEO’s views are seen as an extension of company values,  especially in our hyper-connected media and social environment. Key social channels for professionals like LinkedIn bring an opportunity for a CEO to actively engage with employees, customers, and communities to underscore engagement, build trust, and create connections. I encourage executives to go beyond reposting company articles and produce content that demonstrates their own thought leadership and personal values.

2. Always be authentic: Consumers are looking for leaders to be relatable and genuine. Today’s CEOs can benefit by sharing content highlighting transparency, empathy, and integrity. This can be achieved by engaging in online conversations or replying to feedback with authentic responses. Keep in mind that authenticity can help with more than just stakeholder perceptions of a CEO and their company.  Employees, partner brands, and investors all expect transparency around decisions and changes and as well as open admission of mistakes and accountability.

3. Be the beacon of corporate values: As the most visible face of the company, a CEO should actively build strong reputational capital by aligning company values with both their public and internal platforms. Often as part of developing a personal brand, executives choose societal or industry causes to champion. While remaining authentic, these should also correlate with their company’s value statements. With genuine alignment of personal and corporate goals, CEOS can go on to advance these causes through online content, speaking engagements, and advocacy efforts.

4. Remember reputation matters. CEOs must behave like an executive throughout their careers, even before officially holding the title. CEOs are often the face of the brand, and personal behavior, political affiliations, or even past statements can be weaponized. A positive track record helps control the narrative and underscore personal and corporate trust well into the future.

Conducting a Know Your CEO (KYC) Audit 

A great starting point for implementing these best practices is to run a Know Your CEO audit. These evaluations can help executives, and the companies they represent, assess current brand sentiment and make informed decisions regarding any areas for improvement. 

CEOs and the communications professionals who support them  should understand how these executives appear on digital properties. A search engine optimization (SEO) and answer engine optimization (AEO) audit are important starting points. These exercises can identify the keywords and topics a CEO is most associated with online, giving key insight into user search intent and consumer perceptions. These audits can also highlight whether an executive’s web presence aligns with the company’s mission, vision, and messaging. The goal is to ensure that both the brand and leader appear in results for targeted topics online.

Financial brands should also be both proactive and strategic about earned media involving their CEO. Search engines and tools often rely on third-party content from sources with higher quality scores (such as Reuters, Bloomberg, or LinkedIn) when returning results, providing more organic exposure for an executive and the brand they represent. Earned media coverage also helps build more trust, credibility, and awareness with consumers than paid placements, helping to improve brand perception. 

Internal sentiment analysis is also an important component in this process. While public opinions can be directly tied to corporate growth, employee engagement and retention should not be overlooked. Communications teams can conduct surveys and promote open feedback to improve employee satisfaction, retention, and engagement. Supported by internal data, a CEO can communicate more effectively with their teams and build additional trust. All of this can help foster a positive culture that will organically spread through employee interactions with customers and peers. 

While public response to executive behavior can be fast and formidable, CEOs with a strong personal brand and companies with a clear understanding of how their executives are perceived can leverage, rather than shy away from, having a strong online presence. Developing authentic content that aligns with corporate messaging can provide CEOs with the benefits of building trust and emphasizing integrity. 

Internal teams, and their leaders, can benefit from the strategic support and content development expertise of Vested’s team of financial services marketing professionals. From brand reputation to executive communications, we help CEOs and their companies share their narratives for maximum marketing impact. To learn more, contact our team.